EXCLUSIVE: No girls please: Women are not welcome to fight alongside the Gurkhas

Nepalese culture and religion prevent them being accepted for frontline service with the fearsome regiment.

The news comes after Defence Secretary Philip Hammond speeded up a review into whether women should be given combat roles.

Nepalese women can already join the British Army but they cannot serve with the Gurkhas who say the presence of females in the regiment would destroy the comradeship.

Former soldier Sukbah Gurang, from Aldershot, Hants, where hundreds of retired Gurkhas have settled, said: “The men will not accept it.

"A woman’s place is in the home.

"A Gurkha cannot fight with women – it is wrong, they’ll never be accepted.”

“Our experience in Afghanistan has highlighted the increasingly important contribution women are making to operations”

General Sir Peter Wall, Head of the British Army

Sukbah, who served for 15 years, added that female officers would not be accepted either.

At present 2,000 soldiers serve with the Brigade of Gurkhas based in the UK and Brunei.

They are deeply religious and pray at Hindu temples within their camps.

Tradition is a mainstay of their culture, which encourages the belief that wives must stay at home. But the head of the British Army, General Sir Peter Wall, has made it clear that if female soldiers can deliver “operational effectiveness” they could be employed in infantry battalions.